Revolving around you
by Angel Shinigami
Summary: Laureen leaves Jack when she finds out about Ennis, only to be killed shortly after. Jack, unable to deal with it on his own, takes Bobby and goes to Ennis. A new spin on an old plot! Read and Review... chapter 2 now up!
1. Chapter 1

Title: Revolving around you

Author: Angel Shinigami

Warnings: Fluff, death, sadness, Yaoi.

Summery: This is alittle over done, but as ya'll know, I like to take tired plots and breathe new life into them.

Laureen leaves Jack when she finds out about Ennis, only to be killed shortly after. Jack, unable to deal with it on his own, takes Bobby and goes to Ennis.

Chapter 1

o.o.o.o.o.o

It was a very typical Texan summer day, hot and dry with not a cloud in the sky. It didn't seem a day for funerals, just the opposite in fact, it was a day that the small boy holding his father's work rough hand should've been playing with his friends in a swimming pool and eating ice cream that was more liquid than solid, but he wasn't.

Instead, he was standing in a sea of black, watching the black box that held his mother's still body being lowered into the ground. He couldn't understand why everyone was crying and asking if he were ok.

Gazing up at his father, a three year old Bobby Twist tugged on his hand gently and leaned on held up his arms.

"Up Daddy!" He begged.

Jack Twist, who had been watching his wife of two and a half years lowered into the ground, turned to his small son and gave him a soft smile as he picked him up and balanced the dark haired boy on his hip. "I love you Daddy," Bobby slurred softly, kissing his father's slightly darkened jaw.

"I love you too, Baby." Jack replied, kissing his tiny son's head as the boy leaned on his shoulder and practically fell asleep.

He didn't blame the boy. He wanted to do the same thing. It that been a long week with all of the funeral arrangements, constant arguments with JD at every turn and the long sleepless nights of staring at Laureen's note.

_Jack _

_I know. Be Happy._

_Laureen _

_She had been leaving for her parents house when the semi had come out of no were. _

_Jack still couldn't figure out she'd found out, but he knew however she had, it was his fault she had even been out that night, it was his fault that she would never again complain about his horrible singing or laugh at him when he told some silly story that only he, himself, found funny. She was gone. Like a candle whose flame had been blown out, only her wisps of smoke remained. _

_The perfume that she wore to fancy dinners, the pineapple juice in the refrigerator that only she drank. Just little things that were everywhere. _

_It was about a week later, while numbly staring at his wife's side of the closet, trying to figure out what he was going to do with all of her cloths, that he knew what he had to do. _

_In a furious flight through the house, Jack filled a suitcase for himself and Bobby. He had to go. He needed Ennis, the only person who he knew would be able to make his life make some sort of since once more. _

"_Come on Bobby," He murmured as he scooped up his small son who had been watching his father run around the house with confused eyes. "We're going on a trip…" _

_Bobby smiled and nodded, picking up his favorite stuffed horse before holding his arms up so his daddy could pick him up easier._

_He didn't ask any questions, he knew his daddy was to upset to answer, so he just looked out the window and talked to his horse as they drove further and further away from the only home he'd ever known. _

'_Gotta get to Ennis, Ennis'll make it better…' Was Jack's mantra all the way up to Montana. He stopped here and there to feed Bobby and get gas, but while the little boy slept, Jack drank cup after cup of coffee to keep himself going. _

_By the time he reached Riverton, he was only running on pure determination alone, having not that the heart to wake up his son by stopping so late at night. _

"_Pray he still lives in the same place…" He begged whatever deity that was watching over his as he pulled into the small parking lot of the laundry matt. _

_o.o.o.o.o.o_

_Ennis DelMar was unsoundly asleep next to his wife who lay on the other side of the bed giving him the cold shoulder. Their silent fighting had gotten as loud as it ever did with Alma slamming dished around as she washed them and the girls flinching every time one of the cabinet doors was shut to hard. _

_The blonde man almost thanked god when a franticly loud knocking resounded through out the house. _

"_What's going on?" Alma asked, drowsily sitting up and staring into the darkness at the uncommon sound that was interrupting her sleep. _

"_I'll find out," Ennis mumbled, climbing out of bed and into his jean as he went to answer the door. He knew Alma was behind him, probably clutching at a robe that as if she had something more to hide that what her neck to feet length cotton night gown didn't already cover. _

_Jack didn't stop pounding on the door, silently praying Ennis would answer as he held a half awake Bobby on his hip and fought to keep his tears at bay. But when the door was opened to reveal the blessed form of his shirtless cowboy, wearing a look of confusion that Jack had fallen in love with, he lost the last shreds of everything that had been holding his together and collapsed with a sob onto the man's chest. _

_To say Ennis was shocked to see Jack Twist, looking run down and pale on his door step at three in the morning, would've been an understatement. But when the normally strong and vibrant man began crying and fell onto his chest, Ennis nearly began to cry himself. _

_His Jack, his beautiful Jack was here. But he didn't know why and he didn't know why he'd brought his son, but he did the only thing he knew how to do, he wrapped his arms around the pair, who were now both crying by this point, and pulled them inside, whispering soothing sounds to them as he maneuvered them over to the couch and settled them all down. _

_Alma was shocked and angry that that horrible 'fishing' buddy of her husbands, who had only been here February, making Ennis forget Valentine's day, was now sitting in her living room crying while her husband, who could barely handle his own children crying, held him as if he were the most precious thing on god's green earth. _

_But even though she wanted to demand that he send the nasty man away, who always turned her world on it's side whenever he breezed through town, she couldn't very well set aside the awful way his tears were so heart felt, or the way he held the little boy, who looked to be crying because his father was, so tightly. _

"_I'll just make some coffee." She murmured, knowing her words fell of def ears, as she backed out of the room and into the kitchen where she set the kettle to boil and listened as hard as she could to the noise in the other room, thanking god that her girls could sleep through a stamped without moving an inch. _

_In the other room, Ennis slowly began to rock the man and child in his arms, kissing the top of Jack's head and whispering into his hair. His heart hurt not knowing what was wrong with his Jack, but he wasn't going to interrupt the only outlet for the pain, he could tell the dark haired man had been holding this in for quite awhile now. _

_After a few more minuets of mindless crying, Jack finally began to quite and chuckled softly when he realized his son had cried himself into exhaustion. _

"_You alright?" _

_That voice, worried and still rough with sleep, made him smile alittle wider as he nodded and began to sit up, knowing how finicky this man was when people were to close. _

"_No." Ennis murmured, holding Jack tighter. "Just a little longer." _

_Jack nodded and shifted so that Bobby's head was on his lap. _

"_Reckon you'll be wantin' to know why I'm here balwin' on you're chest." Jack whispered softly, not wanting to disturb the silence around them, but knowing he owed Ennis an explanation. _

"_Reckon so…" Ennis whispered back, his words muffled by Jacks hair as he kissed him once more. _

_Jack struggled with his words for the first time in his life and eventually settled on, "She's dead." _

_It wasn't the most pretty way of putting it, nor did it explain the wild twenty hour trip he'd just dragged his son on, but it was a start. _

"_How?" Was Ennis's reply, a man of few words no matter the situation. _

"_She was leaving us. She found out about…things…and wanted me to be happy. She was going to her parents place for the night when her car was crushed by a eighteen wheeler." He was silent for a moment before his mouth began to move again. "The driver said he never saw her. He said the road was clear one minuet and then there was a flash of red and the sound of metal as they crashed and then a muffled scream as the car rolled. He said it flipped at least six times." _

_Ennis was silent throughout the story that seemed to get more and more horrible as Jack continued. But when Jack began to cry again, not the shuddering sobs of before, but heartbreakingly silent tears, he knew he had to say something, anything, to make it better. _

"_It wasn't your fault…" He whispered, stroking Jack's forearm lightly. "It was an accident." _

"_But she left because of me." Jack argued quietly. "Because I couldn't love her the way she needed to be loved." _

"_No," Ennis argued back. "You loved her. I know you did." _

"_But Ennis-" _

"_No Buts." The blonde interrupted, lightly tapping the dark haired man on the back of the head. "No matter what we have. You have enough love in you for ten people Jack Twist. You loved that woman, whether you know it or not. And She must've loved you something fierce, else she wouldn't've wanted you to be happy. Right?" _

_Jack nodded slowly, allowing Ennis's word fix in less than ten minuets what a hundred other people's words hadn't been able to in two weeks. _

"_Thanks Cowboy…" He murmured, yawning and falling asleep right there. _

"_You're welcome." He whispered back, gently shifting until Jack's head was nestled in the crook of his shoulder before he fell a sleep as well. _

_The house was once more plunged into silence, the men on the couch not realizing they'd left Alma awake in the kitchen, clutching a ceramic mug of coffee and crying to herself. Crying for what she'd heard, crying because of what it meant for her future, as unknown as it was, but most of all, crying over the fact that in her heart, she knew Ennis had never shown her as much love in the four years they'd been married as he had in the hour that he'd just spent holding Jack Twist in his arms. _

_o.o.o.o.o.o_

_Ok…this was my first attempt. Did I do well? Review and let me know. The more I hear from you, the faster the next chapter will be out. _

_Kat_


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Revolving around you

Author: Angel Shinigami

Warnings: Fluff, death, sadness, Yaoi.

Summery: This is alittle over done, but as ya'll know, I like to take tired plots and breathe new life into them. Laureen leaves Jack when she finds out about Ennis, only to be killed shortly after. Jack, unable to deal with it on his own, takes Bobby and goes to Ennis.

Disclaimer: I don't own BBM or any of its characters. I am not making money from this.

Chapter 2

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Alma DelMar, despite her shy, quite nature, wasn't as naïve as most people would claim she was. She knew the difference between a friendly greeting and the explosive passion she had witnessed not two years ago at the bottom of the very stairway she was leaning against. She may not have been very experienced with it, but she knew it when she saw it.

If she were to be completely honest with herself, Passion…wasn't a word she had ever once thought to connect with her marriage. In fact, it was a word she'd never connected to her life. She'd known not to even think about hoping to connect the word when her fiancé, now husband, had told her that he wanted to work for the summer before he married her.

'We need something to start out on,' He'd told her in that soft, shy school boy mumble of his that seemed to always send a blush to her cheeks.

She should've argued with him, insisted that their love was enough for them, that her parents would pay for the wedding, but instead, she agreed with him and let him go. Like a fool she'd held onto the idea that her Ennis was just shy. That things would heat up on their wedding night. But it hadn't.

Things has been awkward and embarrassing and painful on both sides, neither looking at one another, but soon after she'd learned of her pregnancy and things had gotten better.

Ennis had worshiped her, like she was carrying the most precious thing in the world, and when she thought about it, she guessed to Ennis, she was.

He'd taken her out more, seemingly showing her off, even though he didn't really have any friends to show her off to. He'd taken a higher paying job on an out of the way ranch so that he could support the three of them, she'd been so proud of him that day.

But once Alma jr. had arrived his attention soon turned to work and nothing else but his precious little girl. Well…that and beer.

Alma sometimes laughed to herself that Ennis had only married her because of her maiden name.

The only time Alma could say passion had come into play at any point, was when Jenny was conceived.

Ennis had been gone for more than most of the day and when he'd finally come home he was covered in dirt and smelled of liquor, not a lot, but enough. She hadn't been able to take it.

What followed was nothing short of yelling, screaming, crying, man handling and finally, earth shattering sex. To tell the truth, in the following years after Jenny, Alma had started fights, thrown things, said horrible things, just to feel that intense feeling again, but she could count on one hand the few times he'd touched her after that night…all starting after their move into town. After the postcard. After Jack Twist.

Glancing back at the closed door that separated her from the sickening sight in her living room, Alma took another drag from her cigarette and turned her back on the door once more.

With a powerful sigh that plumed smoke around her, blurring her vision, Alma gazed over the small town of Riverton with a critical eye.

Ennis was hers first. Between Jack Twist and herself, she was the only one who could give him children, children whom he loved and spoiled as much as he did his horses. She knew that if she had nothing else, she had that, and it was a powerful trump card in the lousy hand life had dealt her.

Putting out her cigarette, she hitched up her purse and quickly left. It was her turn to open the general store today and her life wasn't going to stop just because Jack Twist had blown into her life once again.

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"Daddy…Daddy…" A tiny voice called over and over, getting louder with each round. After a moment, shaking soon joined the voice that was still echoing it's previous words.

"What is it baby?" Ennis ask quickly, jumping to full alert, his mind racing to figure out why his oldest was standing in her night gown holding a hand made rag doll in one hand and shaking his shoulder with the other.

"Breakfast Daddy…'m hungry…" She replied, pulling her hand back only to stick her thumb in her mouth, slightly shy for waking her daddy up.

"Kay, where's your momma?" He asked, gently easing out from underneath Jack's sleeping body, laying the man's head on a throw cushion.

"Work…" Came the simple answer.

"Your sister still sleepin' ?" He questioned, scooping up his oldest girl as he tried to stifle a yawn.

"Yup."

Alma jr. or just Junior as it were, was just as quite as her father. Even at her young age, she didn't see the need to say more than needed. Her mother sure didn't want to hear her when she was in one of her moods, and her daddy never said much to talk back to.

Ennis nodded as he settled her on a chair and started wondering around the kitchen trying to locate something suitable for breakfast.

'Ain't usually home for this…' He thought to himself, pulling the milk out of the fridge. 'Now where is the cereal…'

"It's in that one…" Junior said, pointing to the cupboard to his left.

"Thanks baby girl." He said, pulling out the only brightly colors box in the cabinet.

"You aren't used to the morning thing are you?" A slightly groggy, but still amused, voice asked from the doorway.

Looking to his right, Ennis's heart tightened at the sight of his Jack, still rumpled from sleep, holding his son who looked like he'd just woken up as well, in the entry to his kitchen. There was almost something right about it.

"Usually at work." He replied, twitching his lips for Jack, knowing that it would make him happy.

"No kidding, Ennis." Jack laughed, pushing away from the doorway where he'd been watching the taller blonde search for the elusive box. "Don't worry though, you're doin' just fine."

Turning before his blush could be seen, Ennis began to fill a small bowl for his daughter, then as an almost after thought, filled two more, one for Jack's son and one for his Jenny when she decided to get up.

"Kay baby girl, here you go." He said, handing her the over flowing bowl and over sized spoon awkwardly.

Quietly, Jack set Bobby down in the chair next to the very silent girl who was carefully eating her cereal with the gigantic spoon.

When he turned around, he ran right into Ennis, who was behind him with a filled bowl of cereal, consequently sloshing milk and brightly colored fruit like O's all over the floor.

"AH! Shi-"

"Oh, Sorry I-"

Both men made to bend and clean at the same time, knocking heads which caused more muffled curses from Ennis and more apologies from Jack before both stopped and actually looked at one another, taking in the milk soaked shirts and the reddening foreheads and before long, both men were laughing.

Well…Jack was laughing, Ennis was blushing, his lips twitching here and there, shoulders shaking with quite chuckles, all of which is what passed for a full out laughter for the bashful cowboy in Jack's opinion. It was as if the tension, that only they felt, had snapped and now the world was as right as it was going to be for the moment.

"I'll just get changed…" Ennis mumbled, setting the now empty bowl on the counter next to its twin and the bright box.

"Yeah, I'll watch the kids." Jack replied, smiling at his cowboy before he went to the sink and got a sponge.

In the time it took to shower and change, Jack had cleaned the spilled food, feed Bobby and Jenny who had wondered into the kitchen shortly after her father had left, and cleaned the dishes once the kids were finished, which was what Ennis walked in on while he was still buttoning his shirt.

The sight of Jack, sleeves rolled up, shirt and pants now more damp from water than milk, washing the previous nights dinner dishes, the morning's breakfast dishes already done, having an unexpected effect on his body.

"Morning Cowboy, coffee is almost done." Jack said, turning to give the blonde man a blinding smile. "The kids are amusing' themselves in the living room."

An odd feeling of perfection swept through Ennis as he finished up the last button on his shirt and took the last two steps towards the beautiful dark haired man in his kitchen, drawing him into his arms after quickly checking to see that the kids were indeed preoccupied.

They didn't kiss, in fact, they didn't even linger that long, but both men reveled in the feeling of the others nearness. It was enough for them, for now. Each knowing that their time together wasn't as rushed as it had been with previous encounters.

Both remembered their past reunion, and the reunions since. The incredible need to touch and possess. The pain of knowing that they would be separated again always making everything more urgent, but now there was no intense need between them.

Now that wasn't to say that both men didn't feel the pull, they did. Jack could see the simmering lust in Ennis's eyes and Ennis could similarly see the over flowing love that was dangerous for everyone involved that filled Jacks, but both knew they couldn't do anything about anything, so they had to be content with what they could have.

"Thanks…" He murmured. "Should probably call my boss…"

Jack nodded and stepped away from the taller man with a reluctant sigh. "Yeah…I'll just go check on the kids."

Ennis watched Jack move into the small living room, his eyes following the shorter man until every last inch of him had moved out of sight, shadow included, before he picked up the cream colored wall phone.

It wasn't hard to get the day off. His boss had fallen on rocky times a few years earlier which left him with two small boys and a little girl to bring up on his own. He wished all the best to Ennis in the care of his friend, but told him in no uncertain tone that he expected to see him the following day.

After a hastily mumbled goodbye, Ennis carefully set the receiver down and stared down at his sock clad feet, one hand absently shoved into the right front pocket of his jeans and the other brought up to his mouth, his blunt teeth chewing on the rough skin that surrounded the nail of his thumb.

It was a surreal feeling for him to still have a job after he'd told an employer that he needed time off, even if it were only one day, like the time Jenny had gotten sick and he'd had to take her to the doctors while Alma had gone to work or when their regular sitter had gotten married.

He'd never understand why that woman complained about them not having enough money when she was half the reason he couldn't keep a job for to long, trips with Jack being the other reason, but he didn't mind those so much.

Alma complained about everything when the mood struck her just right and more time than not that was always.

She complained about having to go to work, she complained about how much she had to work, how tired she always was, how Ennis just didn't understand what she went through for their family. But it was never her that called into work, not once. She'd go off to work whether she'd secured a sitter or not, leaving it up to Ennis to either ask the neighbors, of which they had none with in close enough distance, or to call up whatever ranch he was working at at the time to inform them of his inability to make it in, where upon they would politely tell him to find other employment, because there were plenty more people willing to take his place who needed the work bad enough to not be late.

In the last few months it had gotten so bad that Ennis had been getting up earlier and earlier to get to the ranch of the month so that Alma couldn't rush off and leave him hanging out to dry like wet laundry.

"Hey, Cowboy," Jack said, his voice seeming to come out of no where and every where at the same time, jolting Ennis right out of his thoughts. "Noticed you ain't got a T.V."

"Nah," He murmured back, his ears reddening slightly at having to admit his inability to provide even that for his family. "Radio's good enough."

Jack watched the blonde carefully for a minuet before he gave a lazy shrug of his shoulders and wrapped an arm around the slightly taller man's waist.

"No worries, they ain't all their cracked up at be." He replied, thinking back on the black and white set he had back home in Texas that only got three to six channels on a good day. "Whatta ya think about takin' the kids to a park an lettin' 'um play for a bit then?"

Ennis didn't say anything as he allowed himself to be led into his living room and guided to the couch, Jack unwinding his arm from around his waist, but still settling as close as he knew the blonde would allow while others could see them, even if said 'others' were only their children.

"Ain't no parks round these parts." Ennis replied, watching the three kids get on with one another as if they were a pack of pups separated at birth.

"Not even a swing set or slide?" Jack asked, surprise only coloring his voice for a split second before he remember what a blink of a town he was in, Childress was like Dallas compared to this place.

Ennis didn't bother to answer the brunette's question as he settled back into the couch, which in all truth wasn't all that comfortable, and got ready to spend a lazy day with his favorite people.

"Was thinking of getting a swing set for the girls in the next year or two." He said instead, glancing out the window, practically seeing the white and red swing set gleaming in the hot Wyoming sun.

"Christmas ain't to far off," Jack replied, nudging Ennis's sock clad foot with his own. "Be a heck of a gift."

"Sure enough," Ennis murmured, pleased that Jack liked his idea. When he'd brought it up to Alma she'd simply said that they could use the money in a different way and smaller gifts might be best.

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The day passed with a slow easiness that made it feel as if they were the only people in the world. Around one Jack had found his way around the kitchen enough to make the kids a peanut butter sandwich each, with a red-ish barely sweetened liquid that he could only guess was extremely watered down kool-aid to drink.

It wasn't what anything special, but it didn't involve operating the run down electric stove that in all honesty made Jack more than slightly nervous.

"This mean I gotta cover dinner?" Ennis mumbled, accepting the halved sandwich the dark haired man had made for him, having kept the other half for himself.

"Would save them from my poor, inedible attempts," Jack laughed, tearing off a chunk of his sandwich. "Besides, isn't Alma going to be home in an hour or two?"

"Yeah." Ennis replied, having momentarily forgotten about the frigid red head he shared a life with.

Jack knew better than to even attempt to say anything about Ennis's life with Alma, having only made that mistake once when they were alone by a softly crackling fire, the world hundreds of miles away. It was hard to believe that had only been two years ago.

Nap times came and went, both for the children and the adults who been talked into playing 'horsie' with them, followed by a strange round of house, then a tea party that involved a lot of babbling and eventually led to baths when the pretend tea had turned into the watered down kool-aid, which was surprisingly sticky for having little to no sugar in it.

It was about this time, the girls running around in over sized towels while Ennis dug through their little dresser for pajamas, Jack wrestling Bobby into his cowboy pajama bottoms only to chase after him minuets later with the matching top that the three year old simply refused to wear for some reason only known to him, then switching. Ennis now after Bobby and Jack chasing after the girls claiming that he was the Pajama monster, a game that Bobby always loved, that Alma decided to come home.

Her eyes grew wide at the chaotic jumble that was her house. Her children running through the house, wet and practically nude, half squealing half giggling about needing to be saved from the 'evil Pajama Monster'. A dark haired boy who was more dressed than her girls running as fast as his little legs would carry him only to be caught up in a large pair of arms and tossed over a shoulder with a roar and a hearty laugh from her husband who rarely laughed or played in such a way with his own girls, Jenny only squealing even louder the moment the boy was caught as she was ambushed from behind, her body incased in a sea of lavender cotton.

"What in the world!?" Alma gasped, causing everyone in the little apartment to freeze and look at her, Jenny only having half of her head and an arm through the right holes before she tried to turn to see her mother.

"Bath time, Momma!" Jenny giggled, having finally gotten her other arm In the right sleeve, with Jack's help, and was able to tug the rest of her head through the top hole after two of the buttons had been undone for her.

Alma couldn't seem to get words out of her mouth as she continued to stare at her husband who was blushing lightly and slowly lowering the three year old to the couch he had been ready to playfully throw him onto, the three year old, whose name she couldn't remember if she'd ever asked for, quickly got off the couch and scampered over to his father who was still kneeling next to a cheerfully beaming Jenny.

Junior didn't even need to be told to go to her room to know that it would be a good idea. Calmly she gathered up both Jenny and Bobby's hands and slowly backed out of the room until only the adult were left staring at one another.

"I got chicken for dinner tonight." Was all that Alma was able to force out after the kids had left the room, the tone of her voice icy enough to freeze the coals off a snowman. "Wasn't sure if yur friend was still gonna be here."

"Mm," Ennis grunted, following the small red head with his eyes as he brought his hand up to his lips so that he could bite on the rough skin next to his thumb nail. "Could just go to the Fork and Knife."

Alma was already on her way to the kitchen when the words hit her, her own suggestion from two years prior almost enough to make her drop the small grocery bag in her arms in shock.

"Thought your friend wasn't the restaurant type." She replied, glancing back at the pair, making sure to glare darkly at Jack Twist as hard as she could.

Jack couldn't help the blush that burned his cheeks or the over whelming need to look away from her glare. It wasn't often someone could hit such a hidden cord in Jack, but Alma Beers DelMar had managed it, and he was pretty sure she knew it too.

It was a secret thought he'd kept hidden away, a privet feeling for no one else but him to analyze in his darker reflections. The feeling of inadequacy and shame the first time they'd stopped for breakfast on the road up to Brokeback and Ennis had insisted on getting there order to go and staying in the truck while Jack had gone in to get it.

At first he'd just figured Ennis was in a hurry to get to the lake and didn't want to slow them down by getting out as well, even if they'd only been slown down by half a minuet. But as time went on and it began to happen more and more, Jack had began to wonder if Ennis just wasn't embarrassed to be seen in public with him, if only as a friend and nothing more.

But Trust Ennis to say just the right thing at the right time to both steal his breath away and make his heart soar to new, previously unreachable, heights all at the same time. His dark fears banished with four simple words.

"Thought wrong then, huh?"

Alma's scowl was something dark and ugly as she turned back to unpacking the plain brown bag that held dinner for her family and no one else.

"It's a bit late to start calling around for a sitter." She snipped, preparing to put the chicken in the refrigerator now that she knew they were all going out. She was even willing to deal with Jack Twist if it meant getting out of the dead end she called a home and eating something edible for once that she didn't have to cook herself.

"I'm sure you're capable of being left alone for one night, Alma." Ennis rumbled, already moving to collect the kids, be they in pajamas or not.

Jack snorted lightly, managing to catch himself before the small snort turned into full blow laughter. It wasn't often that Ennis was sarcastic, but when he was it was always both shocking and hilarious all at the same time.

"Daddy, hungry…" Bobby whined softly, a far cry from his normal non stop chatter and firm demands, a sure fire sign that the little boy knew something was wrong and it was upsetting him.

"I know baby, we're going to eat now, kay?" Jack replied as he lifted his son onto his hip and smiled at the girls in his cowboy's arms.

Alma couldn't believe her ears, or her eyes for that matter. Ennis was going to go out with out her. With their girls. And eat together with that …thing, like a family. A family that was hers.

"How could you?" She asked, the honest hurt in her heart seeping through the anger and bitterness that usually filled her eyes when she looked upon her husband. "Why?"

Ennis only paused momentarily in his tying of Juniors' shoes to think about the question, a question he didn't have to think about to hard in fact.

"Because, Alma, they ain't the ones actin' like children."

Jack held his hands out to the two silent little girls, who until their mother had gotten home had been lively and hardly stopped laughing, Junior included, who he had come to learn was more like her daddy then he'd previously thought.

"Come on girls, Let's let yur Daddy get ready too, get ya situated in the truck, yeah?"

Ennis cast a brief nod at his dark haired man, an endearment he would only ever whisper in his head on the days when the pain of their separation got to much, before he stood and faced his wife, who looked very frail and worn in her body swallowing sweater and frazzled hair.

"Jack's been through something awful. Ain't right that you should treat him lower than trash, ain't right." Ennis mumbled, reaching into the right pocket of his shirt to pull out a pack of cigarettes and an old lighter that had once been gold plated, but was now a worn blacked silver from use and age.

"Ain't right?" Alma questioned, pulling her sweater tighter around herself, as if to hide herself from the pain her life had brought upon her. "What ain't right is that he think's that just because his life suddenly took a sharp curve, that he should run away from it, straight into our lives to make us take that curve with him. We all got problems Ennis, not no ones life the way they expected it to be."

Ennis stared at his wife as if he were just seeing her for the first time. Had she been so thin when they'd met? When they'd married? Had her skin always looked chalky? So unhealthy? Had these words, these uncaring, selfish words, always belonged to her, or were they the product of her environment?

"I know about those trips you take." She continued, her lips tightening for a moment before she went on. "Ain't no fishin' goin' on up there."

"Alma-" Ennis tried, only to be cut short.

"No, don't you lie to me Ennis. I know. I saw you two by the stairs all that time ago. Jack Twist…" She paused, disgust raging with the intense need to cry at that very moment. "Jack Nasty." She finished in a whisper, her emotions choking her up to the point where all of her words were a struggle to get out.

Ennis felt anger building in the pit of his stomach, an anger that could possibly be life threatening if he didn't get away from the hard, bitter woman who had over taken the shy, sweet girl he'd married.

He didn't even look at her as he moved to the hallway and out the front door, barely pausing to grab his hat off the coat rack before he was slamming the door and thundering down the stairs as quick as his feet would carry him.

"Ennis wha-"

"Get in the truck Jack." The blonde growled, jerking open his old pick ups' door open and slamming it closed the moment he was more than half way in the cramped cab.

Jack didn't say anything as he slid onto the aged bench, Bobby on his lap and Junior to his left, Jenny on her left, closest to her daddy.

Jack really wanted to ask what had happened between Ennis and his wife, but he knew that it wasn't an appropriate conversation to have in front of children and if he were completely honest with himself, he could probably guess everything that had been said, down to the word.

The ride to the little to the dinner was tense and uncomfortable, Jenny looking up at her father or down at her hands the entire drive while her sister just stared straight in front of her. Bobby on the other hand was to much like his father for his own good and to young to know that sometimes that wasn't a good thing. So while Ennis's girls endured the unsettling situation with grace, Bobby Twist began to fill the silence with off tune singing and babble about something or other than only he could really understand with a few intelligible words thrown for good measure. He was very articulate for a three year old.

By the time the small group pulled into the Fork and Knife's unpaved parking lot, Ennis was suppressing a smile at his own thoughts and the atmosphere in the small cabin had become a lot easier, much to everyone's pleasure.

"Well hey there Ennis!" A bright voice called from behind the counter of the small dinner, bus station combination by the looks of the place. "Sure am surprised at see you out and about. See Alma ain't with you, she not feelin' well?"

Ennis just blushed at the mention of being out with out his wife, or out at all for that matter, and shook his head, not bothering to give an excuse for why she wasn't with him.

Jack smiled at the blonde's shy attitude as he looked over at the chattering white haired woman who had to be at least eighty if she was a day who waved for them to choose a place to be and came from around the counter already armed with a steaming pot of coffee that smelled so strong Jack was pretty sure it could man handle Hercules.

"Whose yur friend?"

Ennis gave a quick mumble as he moved his girls over to a small table that was close enough to the restrooms that the girls could go on there own if need be.

Jack rolled his eyes at his cowboy's 'introduction' and shifted Bobby around so he could shake the woman's hand.

"Jack Twist." He said, flashing one of his best smiles. "Good friend of Mr. DelMar over there."

The older woman smiled back and walked over to the chosen table, Jack by her side.

"Pearl Davis," She replied, "Ennis comes in for pie and coffee once in a while."

Pearl took the groups orders and poured the coffee before she made her way back to the kitchen.

"So, 'm guessin' yur conversation wasn't one of rainbows and kittens." Jack said, pulling out a couple of napkins from the dispenser so the kids could color while he and Ennis talked. Why restaurants put colors on the tables but never left anything to color on, Jack would never know.

"You'd be guessin' right." Ennis replied, staring down at his coffee as if it held the answers to life.

Jack waited for the other man to continue, but when it became apparent that Ennis had said all that he was going to on the matter Jack sighed and took a swallow of his own coffee, never mind that it scalded his tongue, it took his mind off of his present conversation, if only for a moment.

"I'm sorry we just appeared like this… that I just appeared like this." He sighed and began searching for Ennis's answers for life in his own coffee. "It's been about two weeks since it happened. Two weeks of empty words and hollow feelings. I just…needed you. I didn't mean to disrupt your life like this. Make you an Alma fight in such a way."

Ennis looked up from his black liquid oracle to gaze at the dark haired man across from him.

A part of his Jack's world had disappeared from right under his feet and instead of running to his mother, a woman who he had talked about endlessly during their summer on Brokeback and who, by Jack's own admission, was his rock in a cruel world, he'd come straight up to Riverton. To Ennis's door. Not knowing if he'd be turned away due to fear or not. Just needing.

In a rare show of affection, public or not, Ennis reached out and took one of Jack's hands. He figured if anyone made to big a fuss about it he'd take care of it. Grief was universal, as was human contact and comfort in such hard times.

Jack's heart skipped a beat at the feel of Ennis's work rough hand encasing his own from across the table. He almost feared looking up from his coffee to find that it was only his over active imagination. But never one to back away from a challenge, to many times, look up he did and he wasn't disappointed, in fact he was rewarded with a gentle swipe of a callused thumb across the his knuckles.

"Want you here. Sorry it was 'cause of these circumstances though."

Any words Jack would've continued to say on the subject died in his throat with those few, but well chosen words.

Their diners came then, Bobby and Jenny cheering loudly, and any deeper conversation was either forgotten or put off to the side as both men praised the pictures the kids had collaborated on, from Jenny's sunflower yellow sky to Junior's bubblegum pink grass which was a perfectly logical choice seeing as it off set Bobby's eggplant purple trees wondrously.

Diner was finished, desert was debated on and vetoed due to the time and the yawns that were sounding from everyone, not just the kids who were practically asleep were they sat.

This time on the way home there was silence other reasons then tension and by the time Ennis pulled up next to Jack's pick up all three children were sound asleep.

"You want help with them before Bobby and I go?" Jack asked once he'd eased his door open and slid out of the cab.

"What?" Ennis asked quickly, his heart clenching at the sudden news.

"We both know how Alma feels about me." Jack replied, leaving that he felt the same way about her unsaid. "I think it would just be better if we went and got a hotel room, maybe head back to Texas tomorrow."

Ennis gently closed his door, leaving the girls softly snoring against one another still in the truck as he moved around to where Jack leaned against the side of his own truck, Bobby still asleep in the truck with the girls.

"Gonna leave again so soon?" Ennis asked, feeling braver than he would under normal circumstances due to the near pitch blackness that surrounded them.

"Gonna give me a reason to stay?" Jack challenged back, closing his eyes against the warm hand that ghosted against his hip. "Or maybe you'll come with me…"

"I can't leave my girls Jack, no more than you could leave your little boy. Wish it were different…" Ennis murmured, whispering his hand up from Jack's hip to his tone waist.

"No you don't." Jack whispered back, leaning his head back until the long expanse of his throat was exposed to the cool Wyoming night air. "But I have a good lawyer if you really mean what I think you do…"

Ennis's hand stopped it's teasing assent as he bit his lips together and took a half step away from the beautiful rodeo cowboy in front of him.

"Jack…it ain't gonna be like that."

"Why not Ennis?" Jack questioned, leaning up so he could look the blonde in the eyes, their light conversation now serious. "You're not happy here. It's so obvious I'm sure that waitress, Pearl, who by the looks of it is halfway down the road to being blind if her glasses were anything to go on, could see it. You're miserable! Wouldn't it be better to live in a place with more energy in it then it takes to die and roll in to the coffin?"

Ennis wrapped one arm around his waist, bringing his left hand close to his mouth so he could bite on the rough skin around his fingers.

"Alma knows…bout us." He murmured, more embarrassed about it now that he'd had a few hours to chew the information over in his mind.

That information seemed to deflate Jack who had been on the verge of a first class tizzy fit.

"Fuck…" He breathed, leaning back against his truck once more and looking up to the large dark window that over looked the small parking lot.

"Yeah." Ennis breathed back.

"Gotta give it to the women in our lives. Bit sharper than we gave 'm credit for." Jack laughed, thinking back on Laureen's good natured teasing and complaining about his trips. "Laureen always said I talked to much to fish. Gotta say she's gotta point. Well…had a point."

Ennis looked up just in time to see the flash of pain that crossed his Jack's beautiful face.

"Jack…" He whispered, slowly reaching out to pull the silently grieving man into his arms.

"I miss her Ennis…" Jack cried softly, easily being pulled into Ennis's strong chest. "So much."

Ennis just held the dark haired man, held him together, held him until the tears had once more been cried out, until they both remembered that the kids were still in the truck and couldn't be very comfortable sleeping sitting up.

"I could take Bobby and Jenny if you wanna get Junior." Ennis whispered, once they'd opened the passenger side door once more.

"Sure." Jack murmured back, scooping the brunette girl into his arms after Bobby had been situated on Ennis's hip, his little arms securely wrapped around the blonde's neck.

Jack was very surprised at how easily Ennis's girls had taken to him, even more surprised how well Bobby had taken to Ennis. Bobby hardly let anyone but Jack or Laureen carry him, much to LD's irritation and Fey's disappointment.

Laureen had always insisted that it was just a faze and that he'd grow out of it, but as time went on Jack grew more and more sure that Bobby just had a good judge of character as well as good taste, his point now proven at the sight of Bobby groggily leaning into Ennis, peaceful as could be.

"Seems you're irresistible to us Twist men." Jack teased gently, easily closing the truck door with his hip after Ennis was out of it's way, arranging Jenny on his other hip as he walked to the stairway that lead up to the small apartment.

"Looks that way, Think I like this one better though." Ennis teased back, glancing back at the dark haired man to flash a smile at him.

"Careful, I feel it's my duty to inform you that that particular Twist drools in his sleep."

"Ain't much of a change then." Ennis replied finally reaching the door only to realize that he wouldn't be able to reach his keys with both kids in his arms, let alone open the screen door. "Hey bud, you wanna grab the keys from my front pocket?"

Jack would've teased and made a suggestive joke while feeling his cowboy up if he hadn't had a little one in his arms as well. Shifting Junior around so she was now balanced on his hip, freeing up one of his hands, he easily slid his fingers into the blonde's tight blue jeans and plucked the keys out with a wink.

After that it was a simple matter of finding the right key, but Jack was saved from the hassle of going through all four identical looking keys when the door was opened by Alma who had obviously been waiting up for them.

She didn't say anything, but then again Jack was pretty sure her look of anger at seeing him holding her sleeping daughter said everything needed.

"Bobby can sleep in Jenny's bed," Ennis said as he led the way to the girls room, sparing only a glance for his wife. "Jenny can sleep with Junior."

Jack had to smile at Ennis's silent rebellion against him leaving. By solving the sleeping situation and tucking Bobby into the little bed with light pink covers before he lay Jenny down in the second bed, he was effectively making sure Jack stayed near him and was there when he left in the morning. Because if Jack was there when he left, he'd be there when he got back, Jack was just that type.

"Love it when you take charge like that, Cowboy." Jack laughed as he lay the little girl in his arms down on the bed next to her sister, both girls curling close to one another the moment the covers were pulled over them.

Ennis just blushed at that, leaning down to kiss his girls goodnight while Jack did the same next to him with his own son, before they both stood and looked down at their kids, all sleeping so peacefully in each others presence.

Both men looked at one another an smiled, before they simultaneously turned and moved back out to the living room where they were met by a patently waiting Alma.

Alma looked at both men with a look of anger and, for Ennis, a look of soul deep disappointment. A look that could make the Pope confess is sins if it were turned on him.

"Alma.." Ennis greeted slowly, unsure of what her reactions would be.

"Think we should talk." The small red head said just before she took a deep drag of her cigarette and looked away from the pair that sat on either end of the couch.

"I'm leaving you Ennis, everything about you. This place, this poverty, the girls who don't stop screaming unless you are around, all of it. You can have it and the evil you wallow in." She pointedly looked over at Jack at that, but looked back out the window before she continued.

"What you do is against God, but I shouldn't be to surprised. You never go to church unless forced to. I never understood why, until I saw you. Until I realized that you had been tempted by the forbidden and had been cast out of God's paradise. So I am going to divorce you and marry Monroe, he loves me."

Ennis sat quietly through all of this, unsure of what he should be feeling. On the one hand there was regret and shame. Shame that he hadn't been able to make it work with a wife you had loved him so much, regret that he'd hurt her so deeply. But on the other hand it felt as if a weight was being lifted off his chest, like the future wasn't so bleak. It was a very confusing moment for him.

"I'll want to see the girls once a month. And we will spend holidays together, to show them that there are no ill feelings between us, but make no mistake Ennis, I can't stand what you've chosen for yourself. I think you need to look at your life and in a few years you might understand what you've lost when you are still working your dead end jobs and you can't afford to send the girls to school anymore…"

Jack just stared at the red headed woman who in so many words had not only given him everything he'd ever wanted, but also seemed to taint it. It left a bad after taste in his mouth, but he knew that in her mind she was thinking that if she let Ennis go, he might just come back.

"I'm leaving tomorrow, my sister is coming to get me." She finished, stubbing out the cigarette that had burned out at some time during her speech. "I'll be gone before you go to work."

At this Ennis looked up from where he'd been staring at his hands in search for answers they seemed unwilling to yield.

"You got a sitter lined up for 'm?" He asked, already knowing her answer.

"No. That's your responsibility now."

Had Ennis been any less confused over what had just taken place he might have been more upset about Alma making him be late for work again, but as it stood all he could do was nod in acceptance, to blindsided to use any higher brain functions.

Alma went to be after that, letting it be known in no uncertain terms that Ennis was not welcome to join her by ways of locking the bedroom door.

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Well, there ends chapter two, what do you think? This really isn't a story for Alma lovers, but if you look past her ignorance and bitterness you can see that she is leaving Ennis so that he can be happy, she just thinks his happiness will be with her once he sees that the grass isn't always greener.

Authors Note: Some of you might be wondering about the word I used earlier in the chapter, 'Slown', I used this not quite word in place of 'Slowed' because I didn't like the way 'Slowed' flowed with my rhythm. I was very saddened to learn that 'Slown' wasn't an actual word as I use it from time to time. I guess that's just more of my southern showing through…..

As always reviews make my world go round ^_^ Can't wait to hear from you.

Yours,

Kathleen


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